


The Good Night

by captaincalliope



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, The Splendid Angharad Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 07:23:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4697279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captaincalliope/pseuds/captaincalliope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Angharad meets the Vuvalini, and thinks about the uncertain future ahead. </p>
<p>Written for the "Five Wives Week" on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Good Night

When Furiosa exits the War Rig, Angharad feels tempted to follow her.

She had just told them to stay in the cab, spotting something (bait, the Fool says) that makes her pause, blinking as if she can't believe her own eyes. The others can only watch and wait as bikers, aiming their guns at her, quickly surround the imperator. The woman acting as bait approaches Furiosa, unarmed, and gently bumps her forehead with the other woman's, signalling to the Vuvalini that one of their own has returned. 

The tension in the cab dissipates immediately, as they all climb out from the Rig to greet the Many Mothers. Angharad is the last one out, pausing to look back at the Fool. 

"Aren't you coming?" she asks. 

He grunts, not moving an inch from the driver's seat, staring into space. He did that a lot, even when it was his turn to rest, too busy being haunted by whoever he was with before he met them. She could sympathise with that, being chased by old memories, and so she left him there without another word. 

(In the Rig, she had caught him a few times glancing at her and her child, still sticky from labour, and thinks that maybe, in another life, he was a parent too.)

Angharad falls back behind the others, feeling both excited to meet them and afraid of their judgement. The baby, whose breathing has finally evened out, peers at her from its white shawl and gurgles happily, as if it can sense her joy growing stronger each step she takes toward the group. The women gather around them, marvelling at their cleanliness, but they stop as one as they reach Angharad and her child.

"It's so small," one of them says, "Can't be more than a few days old." 

"Try a few hours," another pipes up, gazing intently at the child as if she were sizing him up. 

"I can't wait for them all to see it," Furiosa interrupts their impromptu examination, a genuine smile on her face.

"See what?" Someone asks, confusion plain on her face. 

"Home," she replies, as if it is the most obvious thing in the world. 

The looks the Vuvalini share make Angharad feel ill, like there's an unpleasant secret they have kept from them. They eventually realise the truth - the Green Place is no more - and it's all Angharad can do to not curl up into the foetal position and cry.

Furiosa does enough crying for them all. 

... ... ...

One of the Vuvalini (The Nightingale, if Angharad recalls correctly) offers to take her baby for a while. "To see if it needs any medicine," she claims, but Gale can sense how tired the new mother is, senses that she feels uneasy trying to rock the newborn back to sleep, and so Angharad gives her the child without any fuss. She opts to sit on one of the patched-up blankets on the border of the camp, near enough to the group to feel safe but far away enough to sit with her own thoughts for a while. Hours pass and the sun sets and she still hasn't moved from her spot, staring at nothing in particular until the moon arrives. She looks towards it, the brightest light in the sky and becomes so entranced that she doesn't hear Furiosa coming up to her until she coughs to get her attention. 

"How's your leg?" Furiosa asks quietly, but in the silence of the camp, it feels like she's shouting. "Does it still hurt?"

"No - not as much," Angharad replies, her gaze never leaving the stars above. 

She could still see the stars while she was in the Vault, but it was nothing compared to this. The wide-open sky, dotted with pinpricks of light, makes her feel small and gives her courage all at once. It is a strange feeling, this newfound sense of freedom, but she cannot seem to peel her eyes away from the night sky, revelling a little in its light. 

A part of her doesn't ever want to look away, knowing that she would have to deal with the fact that the Green Place was now an oily bog, poisoned beyond all repair. 

Still, she eventually meets Furiosa's concerned gaze and somehow finds it within her to give the imperator a small smile. It isn't her fault that her home had rotted in the time she had been taken, but the question of how she will raise her child still lingers in her mind. She had planned to give birth when they reached their haven in the desert, surrounded by the people she loves, safe in the knowledge that her baby will never have to experience the horror that is Joe. 

Now, it seems, that Joe will never go away, that he will keep chasing them forever, until he dies or they falter. 

All they can do is keep moving, so it doesn't surprise her when Furiosa tells her what their plans are for tomorrow. 

... ... ... 

The Bait - otherwise known as The Valkyrie - sits down next to her, with something in her hands.

"Here," she offers it to Angharad and the other woman can clearly see, even in the dull moonlight, that it is a gun. 

"I don't want it," she whispers back, curling her arms around herself. 

"You don't know how to shoot?" Valkyrie asks, stashing the gun away in one of her pockets. 

"I can't," Angharad answers, as if it is simple as that. 

She froze when Furiosa gave her the gun to reload as they were being chased by the Rock Riders. If she can't load another person's weapon, then how on earth is she supposed to fire one of her own?

"I could show you how," Valkyrie offers, not quite getting what she means.

"I can't," she repeats, glaring at the other, her rage bubbling just beneath the surface.

There is a brief moment of silence between the two. Angharad worries that she had said the wrong thing, or has annoyed the warrior woman with her refusal, but suddenly she laughs, not unkindly. 

“You’re just as stubborn as Furiosa was,” Valkyrie says, but does so with a fond smile that tempers her words. 

Angharad doesn’t quite know what to say to that, and so she says nothing. 

Valkyrie breaks the silence once again. "Do you know how to ride a bike?" 

A memory pops up, unbidden, in Angharad's mind of her mother once trying to teach her how to drive a car. It's a rust bucket, caked with dirt and grime, and it always veers over to the left and it's her first love, not counting her parents. She remembers trying to reach the pedals below, just a tad too short for it, and her other mother smiling and letting her sit on her lap while she clutched onto the steering wheel, directing the car every which way. That day was a good day, although not a lot of learning was done, because she can recall the happy faces of her parents and remembers feeling loved above all else, remembers that such a thing as love can still exist in the wake of the world dying. 

"No," Angharad finally replies, her eyes watery. "I don't know how." 

"I can teach you," Valkyrie says, "If you want." 

"Right now?" 

"Why not? There's no time like the present."

That is how they find themselves a short distance away from the camp, trying to get Valkyrie's bike to start. At first, she lets Angharad sit behind her, letting her get a feel for the ride before trying to drive it for herself. She shows her which pedals do what, and how to brake, just like her Initiate Mother showed her to do, many moons ago. Once that's finished, Valkyrie runs behind her, hands firmly planted on the back of the bike to keep it steady as the other slowly accelerates through the valley made by the sand dunes. It takes her a few tries, and one or two falls, before she can ride in a straight line and turn corners with ease. 

"You're a natural!" Valkyrie cries over the subdued roar of the engines, a wide grin on her face.

Angharad stops the bike up next to her, taking a moment to put up the stand and get off the motorcycle. 

"I'm a quick learner," she says, with a smile to match. 

They ride together for what feels like hours but is really only half that time, drifting across the cold sand and making shapes out of the tracks they leave. When they reach the camp, Angharad reluctantly lets go of Valkyrie and hops off the bike, still smiling from the adrenaline rush. The pair spot an empty space next to where Furiosa sleeps and Valkyrie gently shakes her awake.

"D'you mind if we sleep here, too?" 

Furiosa shrugs in response, but moves over to the middle of the rug to give them enough space to lie down. Cuddle piles aren't a foreign concept to Angharad - she and her sisters had formed them from time to time, before they escaped - and so it feels nice when she presses herself against Furiosa's right, while Valkyrie lies on her left. 

"Goodnight, you two," she whispers before settling down next to her childhood friend. 

"Goodnight," Furiosa mumbles, falling back to sleep easily. 

Angharad looks back up at the stars above, then to the Vuvalini and her Sisters, all slumbering together underneath the pale light. She spots her son in Gale's arms, as she sings a soft lullaby while rocking him to sleep. She can see the Fool, watching over them from the Rig, and thinks she can see a fond look in his eyes as he spots Furiosa sandwiched between the two of them. 

In spite of their uncertain future, it is a good night, indeed.


End file.
